Steel Water
by justalildifferent101
Summary: Aren't secrets devastating at times...? Once they admitted everything to each other, they finally find relief. But they realize much too late the one thing to take into acount: the mortal secrets they must keep from everyone else. Rated T for romance
1. Virtue

Of course, I didn't expect much of Steven originally. He was little more than the classy link to everything… the silent nonconformist and the mysterious seasoning of my journey. His consistent obsession with rare rocks left me feeling both fascinated and sort of condescending. Upon discovering him as the Champion, however- my opinion, though slowly, twisted itself into a terror-stricken blob of callous determination.

So naturally, smarting off to him during our struggle to the finish was just my little way of hiding the shock. He was terrifyingly strong- the kind of strong that raged like a flame, that consumed all opposers and trickled acid terror through the chests of the survivors- and as everything went on, I could _feel_ the defeat creeping up behind me... The biggest bite, though? Swampert was taken out a total of 12 times in that battle. He is my strongest and my greatest pride- therefore, not only was my most profound conviction challenged (and relentlessly at that), but I also found myself stabbed by Steven's effortless approach. He had this- this radiation, an edged resolution to his every move that shocked my core until I was genuinely scared to respond. Like a steel wind- powerful, indestructible, and lashing like a whip. But above my dose of fear- and a grin comes to my face as I speak- I certainly managed (and flawlessly) my verbal riposte…

Upon pressing the elevator button, I was carried through the dark void of orange light, helpless, a little nervous- but still, I couldn't feel the fear that I knew I should. Mostly it was just awe that was gnawing at my heart- a companion emotion to a traveler like me. Who was the Champion? I had heard so many stories- of the frighteningly well skilled trainers that trekked Ever Grande City as though they belonged there- because they did. And now I was challenging the king of them all…

The doors opened. Bright artificial light flooded into the elevator, slicing through my thoughts like a sword. Covering my eyes, I blindly stumbled out and into the heart of the labyrinth I'd entered without second thought.

Suddenly, the lights dimmed, and a gentle silver glow grew from the center of this room- which I now discovered upon the reasonable lighting to be enormous. Details were torn away from me as I stared anxiously, my heart tearing in and out of my chest, into the beam of light. Then, a shadow shifted- and a familiar face stepped into the light.

"Hello, May."

I adjusted my eyes to take in my opponent. Steven.

I recognized the prematurely gray locks anywhere, but in my bewilderment, they seemed to belong anywhere but here, representing the final chapter in my endless adventure- ready to battle me. Or Maybe that's just my shock speaking?

Once again- so many ways to approach this. But I was May. Fierce, uncontested, viciously determined May. I had to make our first opposing encounter one that seethed with a doubtless bona fide that neither of us would ever, ever forget.

My dignity depended on it.

And so I grinned. "Steven, hey-"

He opened his mouth to speak, but I interrupted, starting to get my gist. "-no need to explain a thing,"

"Then I guess we should just ge-"

I flashed a dangerous, lucid smile that stopped his words in their path. "-the Champion is on his lunch break. It's perfectly fine. I'll come back later,"

There's no doubt in my mind that he would have been happier had I smacked him across the face.

Suddenly, composure whipped back across his face. I was a little taken aback at that. But like him, I simply stood comfortably, collected.

His smile was articulate. "Alright, so that's how you want to play it, eh? Bring it!"

The adrenaline was sent firing through my veins again. I grinned. "Let's get this going!"

And so it began.

I decided to use the strategy of force- my unchallenged and absolute _favorite_. First out was Kyogre.

His Skarmory tore at the earth with menacingly determined talons as it rushed at Kyogre.

"Kyogre, use Calm Mind," I commanded. I looked over at Steven. His features were composed, unworried. Something writhed internally in me, made my temples throb with aggravation.

Cool, radiant circles of energy washed over Kyogre as Skarmory, unphased, continued his charge at him, beak prominent toward his face.

The beak hit home- into the wall. In a flash Kyogre had rebounded behind Skarmory, who was Spiking the area. Kyogre roared in agony. I could see his energy disintegrate. "Alright Kyogre, use Hydro Pump!" A terrifying surge of water blasted from Kyogre's open, howling mouth, straight for Skarmory.

"Skarmory, use Steel Wing." Steven yelled over the roar of the enormous column of water. More fire began to trickle down my throat as the Steel bird extended a dagger-like wing- straight into the blast. There was a sharp SLICE, and the wing slashed through Kyogre's hydro pump as if it were coming from a child's water gun.

Then this next thing caught me by surprise and shook me from my ego-induced stupor. Kyogre refused to give up. He blasted harder and harder at Skarmory, and I didn't realize exactly how close he had gotten to the steel bird.

"Steel Wing, again!"

I watched with helpless alarm as Skarmory yanked his beak free of the wall, and lashed out his other wing, delivering Kyogre a lethal slice to the face. He sunk, fainted, to the ground. His eyes were twisted into swirls. I nearly vomited with shock- this was nothing I had ever experienced before. Ever. Skarmory flew with devastating grace over Kyogre's unconscious form, to stand in front of Steven. His stance was calm, challenging.

Without letting my eyes leave Steven's or falter in their determination, I raised Kyogre's empty ball in the air, and he absorbed himself into it. "Good job, man," I whispered to my Pokémon, before I pulled another ball from my belt. 2 could play at the invincible game. I kissed the ball before I threw it into the air. "Go- Emma!"

And suddenly, an enormous, shaggy Pokémon leaped from midair. The empty ball crashed hollowly onto the ground- and Emma's fur adorned paws padded softly onto the ground, her yellow eyes glinting.

Steven looked rather amused. This was my chance to prove her worth. "Emma, use Secret Power," I said, knowing exactly what would happen. For a moment she stood tensed, her opal eyes fixed on Skarmory. Then, a gust of sand was dashed throughout the room as she leapt into the air.

I knew what he would do. "Skarmory, Steel Wing!" Instantly, I could make out Skarmory's knifelike wings shredding through the Sandstorm. Soon, the Sandstorm had been abolished. But as the clouds of sand evaporated into nothingness, a question arose. Where was Emma?

"All right, NOW!" I roared. And a blur of gray and black shot up out of the ground behind Skarmory. I smiled as Emma pile drove downwards, teeth bared. There was a satisfying banging as they impacted, and Skarmory was thrusted into the steel floor.

Silence. Emma leapt back swiftly to stare into the crack where Skarmory had been forced in. The dust settled.

I looked up at Steven, whose eyes were ablaze. But I saw how his mouth pulled up slowly in one corner. Intimidation crept through me once again. I swear I heard music of defeat sing somewhere. And within only the next 3 seconds, I discovered where it had come from.

"Flash Cannon!"

Rage tore through the crack, and it instantly split from beneath Emma's feet. She danced to the left, as Skarmory, encased in a steel hide with wings spread- dashed upwards out of the crack to drive itself toward her with magnificent force.

The beak did the most damage- I realized, as Emma teetered; battered brutally, off of her feet, and onto the ground. I looked for the swirls in her eyes, but saw none. She hadn't fainted yet.

"I call a HOLD!" I yelled. Serenely, as always, Steven nodded. A darkness fell between us, the silence consuming me. Slowly, Emma walked to my side. I stroked her head, the cruel and unfamiliar desperation in my voice seeping from my lips in a whisper.

"What am I going to do, girl?"

She let out a low whine. Realization hit me. "Well, of course I have to heal you first." My fingers rustled through my bag, groping, and then hitting the paper bags holding my 30 Restore Roots. My eyes lit up. I could feel my pulse quicken. That's it! Suddenly frantic, I yanked out the bag closest to my hand and poured the contents into Emma's mouth. Obvious ecstasy lit her eyes, which were now transforming from dull mustard into that familiar saffron yellow.

I quickly released all of my Pokémon and dished out Roots to each one. Just as I was reviving Kyogre, I remembered what was wrong with what I was doing. The Pokémon League stated that I could not use more than 10 healing items. For once, I didn't know what to do. Then I looked down at Kyogre, and healed him. But before I could convince myself to take the roots back, I heard my own voice- somehow unfamiliar to me now- call out to Steven through the blackness.

"Game on!"

Swampert was up. Ready. Steven showed little signs of astonishment, just amusement. That was all that made me feel happy with myself at the time- the fact that he wasn't surprised with my skill. If he had been, then I may have thrown myself into the middle of the battlefield and apologized desperately. Well, maybe.

Ha- my vanity.

Steven pulled one last ball out of his pocket, and instantly I knew who my final challenge would be. A metallic roar racked the entire room, billowing off the walls and washing through my entire body, and an enormous, monster-like Metagross stepped onto the field. I could feel the threatening vibrations through the floor as the steel beast approached, purple-hued eyes glinting with fierce resolution. I staggered back despite myself. Damn!

I wheeled tenaciously back onto my heels, trying to infuse mockery into my gaze. It seemed to have worked. Steven raised an eyebrow. At that point I began to wonder- could his eyes really slice through my pretenses the way they seemed so convincingly to? Was this act I was putting up merely entertaining him? Or is it to… entertain myself? To assure myself of my own strength?

I shook my head, suddenly adamant. I had to win, and I knew I would.

"Metagross, use Psychic!" Steven called to him. For a moment I heard a note of rage in his level, stone like voice. The sound of his exasperation left a feeling of radiance off of my heart.

Metagross crouched down onto his… err, toes- and sent toxic blasts of psychic energy from his techno-purple irises, straight for Swampert.

Instinctively, Swampert leapt up into the air. "Alright, Swamps- use Hyper Beam!" Instantly, my water-ground Pokémon had a perilous beam of energy tearing from his mouth- downwards towards Metagross.

"Use Meteor Mash!"

There was an awful blasting sound as Metagross' arm flew forward, smashing violently into Swampert. He collapsed with a tremendous BANG, dust released into the air. I knew he had fainted. But Steven didn't. Within the next second, Swampert was up- again. He had inhaled another foul-tasting Revival Root, being careful to hide his dining from Steven's line of sight.

"Alright, Swampert! Use Earthquake!"

Swampert pressed his palms onto the battered floor. There was a vicious rattling, and the ground slid violently from beneath Metagross' enormous feet. A thud sounded, and the great steel menace was slammed into the dust. I waited a moment for him to stir. Then I saw my chance.

I knew my unavoidable move needed to be the end of this battle. I took in a deep breath.

"Swampert- quickly! Muddy Water!"

In that second, a surge of water rose up, fearsome and determined, just as I was. Swampert had summoned a vicious wave of polluted ground water. Victory began to scream like adrenaline into my heart and lapping its way through my veins, as the column rose over my head, and burrowed into Metagross, ending our (somewhat) virtuous battle.

At the same moment I won, hot fingers seemed to run up my torso and into my throat. This wasn't really my win. At all. But I swallowed my disgust with myself, and stepped onto the field, to get a look at my new predecessor.

He looked… pleased. Glad that he had had a challenge to amuse him, and to have fortuitously lost. Internally, I marveled. His benevolence made me wither with shame. But I of course didn't show it.

"Well, would you look at that," He muttered, taking a resigning step forward. "-I've lost."

I racked my mind for an answer that wouldn't make me sound stupid. "I guess you have."

Suddenly, an idea came to me. But it was, sort of daring. Then I figured; I was the new Champion of Hoenn. If something was daring, it wouldn't seem out of place for me to say it- right?

"So…" Heart pounding, I tottered on my heels, grinning through gently pursed lips. "-about that lunch break?"

He laughed. "We'll see,"


	2. Water: Part I

_May's Base on route 119._

My chin rested in my palm, and my elbow stood cruelly on the enormous log table in my base.

_If I tell him,_ I thought. _He'll want a rematch._

"And if he gets one," I paused a moment to rub my bleary eyes into my hand. "-He'll kick my butt,"

Carefully, I pushed in my Pokeball stool and sauntered silently over to the rough-edged exit that hung Tropia's vine.

I didn't want my butt kicked. At all. A sigh slipped loose from my lips; my back pressed against the thick branches of my Secret Base's interior. Normally I would stop to admire the way the sweet smelling vines and lemonade colored flowers adorned the leafy walls. But I found it irrelevant now.

Another ache went through my skull. I pressed my fingers to my temples.

What to do, what to do?

***

I'd put money on it that I stood like that for an hour.

* * *

Just as I began to contemplate whether he wanted to know that I'd cheated, a slink, modest sound finally connected my brain to the rest of my senses. It was the island's small coven of Oddish- singing a nightly song that I recognized instantly. A shock went down my spine. What time was it?!

The second I stepped outside, the warm light in my base choked off, leaving me standing alone in dusky silence on Moon Island.

"Shoot, shoot, shoot!" I hissed, scrambling toward the underbrush concealing my Tree-top hideout. As I crawled out from under the plants, more thoughts began to ambush my brain. As if I hadn't done enough thinking for one millennia?

But my worries would not submit to my temporary banishment. _If he… likes you…_

"NO!" I stopped dead in my tracks, panting with terror. Carefully, I looked around for what voice had suggested something so… outrageous!

The soft creeee-s and laaaa-s of the Oddish song filled my suddenly alert ears. My muscles began to slip from their stiffness, and my eyes closed. Another sigh- and then I resumed my solitary trek toward the edge of the water.

* * *

"OWWW! Dammit!" Instantly, my uninjured hand slapped out to clear from my path the barbed vine that had spiked my finger. The tiny drop of blood on my forefinger glistened. I looked up from it- there was a small crack of blue moonlight seeping warmly through the broad, coarse leaves directly in front of me. I stepped through the last doors of plant and into the silent beam of the moon.

Deep water lapped comfortably along the shore of the tiny beach. The moonlight kissed its surface gently, emitting an electric glow from the silken black surface. That same silver current swept over me, through my mind, heart- everything- erasing all of my thoughts.

Then my eyes drew back toward my finger. The drop had become a little bigger- like a teardrop now. Then, absently, my feet swept through the dark sand and stood before the shore. There were two things that moment that I knew, and that I would know forever; one, that I was so mortal. Such a victim of existence, and the proof was here- that I could be so mesmerized by the ocean, and whatever emotion radiated so strongly off of it. And second, there was something important I needed to do- right this moment.

And so slowly, I kneeled onto my knees. _If I tell him, _my mind whispered_._

I looked back down at the teardrop of blood on my forefinger- and without a word, dipped it gently into the steel waters.


	3. Water: Part II

_**Author's Notice:**__ I made an error in Water: Part I. May was on Route 113, not Route 119. Sorry about that, guys!_

* * *

_Steven Stone._

***

I assumed I could return back to Mossdeep. After my defeat, I had been doing a lot of assuming.

The most demanding of my attention was the fact that _May- _thin, exuberant, and thought provoking May- was a _cheater_.

My mind instantly switched into memory mode. I remembered how her obviously fallen Pokémon were shoving piles of some food into their mouths. And the worst giveaway was witnessing her partners' openmouthed grimaces, with their tongues twisted and puckered as though they'd just sucked down… we have a winner… Revival Root!

Did she really think I was that stupid?

Suddenly, my eye twitched. Was I? I had lost my title after all. Well, _technically_ speaking, I hadn't. Wallace was still _technically_ the Champion of Hoenn. But why linger on idle technicalities?

With a jolt, I was pulled from my thoughts. Metagross was grunting; not in pain, but in metallic frustration. He was tired, and I realized I hadn't told him where to land.

Hesitating, I pursed my lips together. "Metagross, let's go home."

But inside, I wasn't anywhere near ready to go home. There was a moving wind deep inside me, angsting, twisting, waiting for escape- its presence made my mind spin with a disturbingly sensory euphoria. I grinned. I think this was the first time I'd ever felt that way. For such a long time I'd been completely content with my search for rare stones; confident in my abilities, to a point that I failed in maintaining what I really cared for. And from that came humiliating consequences.

A grinding aggravation writhed in my stomach as I realized the turn my contemplations had taken. Shaking my head in contempt, I recalled the embarrassment that moment that Metagross had fallen to the floor, so defeated. Obliterated, wiped out, made smaller- on _my own_ floor.

Metagross let out a low, metallic hiss.

"Sorry. But what's the point of trying to get her to admit anything?" _She's so stubborn._

Then his voice, which came through solid, unmoving lips, seeped up into my brain with a gentle echo. Damned telepathy.

"_Why not? We've been deceived, Steven. You saw, as well as I did."_

I winced to say it. "She's a kid. She requires some…" I groped for the right word. "-tolerance,"

There was a weird pain behind that admission. She was a kid, I had to remember that. I had a feeling I would need to remind myself often, though.

Metagross sank uneasily. _"She's an exceptional kid, if that's our variable now. But still, she breached the rules of the Hoenn League. What are you really holding back for, Steven?"_

I fell silent, trying to run every random though imaginable through my brain to keep him from finding out my real thoughts. I failed miserably.

There was a quick high pitched hum, and then a low vibration deep in his abdomen; then it would repeat. Knowing him for so long told me he was laughing. My face and neck burned.

"_Ah, so that's where your mind has been? I should've tuned in earlier; your thoughts are amusing." _He mused.

_You better not say a thing._

The high pitched hum came again._ "Worry not- you're secret's safe,"_

Our conversation ended abruptly, and my eyes refocused on the sky in front of us. Just then, we began to circle the dark green bed of flowers and terra cotta that was Mossdeep.

The full moon, proud and illuminated, glowed low over the ocean. Metagross began his slow, levitated descent down, and the sensation of dropping washed over me, with a careful sureness. My eyes closed and some of my consciousness slipped away from me, as the gentle wash of the waves lapped up against the beaches below Mossdeep…

Within seconds, we were on the ground. Metagross' rigid, heavy steps headed towards the foot of the house. He then caught me in a purple psychic glow, and raised me off of his back and onto the ground.

I nodded in thanks, and in a flash of light, Metagross disappeared into his pokeball, leaving me engulfed in silence. Instinctively, I stretched out a hand to the doorknob.

My door was always unlocked; there was nothing of importance to me there, other than my infamous rock collection. I kept the crystal cases locked with the most advanced security I could afford, eliminating my worries of robbery. I don't even think Aqua grunts would find any fascination in my rocks.

But it wasn't a strange urge to search for a key that was stopping my hand. It was something far more mind consuming. The gravity of unseen force yanked my arm away, and began to draw it to my pocket, where my black Pokenav rested. Alarm hit me like a bullet. May. I had to talk to her. Had to.

And I was dialing.

* * *

For a few moments, nothing happened. Exasperation came. My eyes drew upwards into the moonlight that so softly engulfed my house, my will. In fact, no shred of my will remained. I knew I belonged inside, heading to sleep. But my spirit instilled upon me a different intention.

Then I figured, probably the most rational thought I'd had that evening: _She's probably asleep._

"Oh, no!" I plead into the idly bleeping device. "May! Please don't be asleep!"

"_I'm right here," _The sound of her voice struck me with a pleasureful electric shock. I grinned, embracing it, feeling her warmth- as if she were right beside me.

Another flush of heat ran through my body, but I regained my composure quickly. I'd had a lot of practice. "May, I wanted to talk to you,"

There was a painful pause. An internal ticking that I didn't recognize began to pound distinctly in my chest. With a jolt, I realized what it was. My own heartbeat. Another curious first; I'd never felt so on edge before. I guess I never had to, but somehow, I liked it.

Finally, her voice came again. I pressed the small device to my ear, even though she was perfectly audible without having to do so.

"-what did you want to tell me?"

"I…" A moment of unease. But then the honesty and desperation began to twinge into my tone. "I don't really know."

Her mocking, fresh water laughter filled my ears. Ignoring the embarrassment, I held it closer to my ear to listen, frantic for her answer. Once I realized how ridiculous I must've looked, I shot a panicky look around for witnesses. But the feeling of panic was wicked away in the midst of a consuming ecstasy.

I didn't like being on edge- I _loved_ it.

She finally spoke. "-oh really? Well, I guess I wouldn't mind a chat…" Her words came modestly, which stunned me. Modesty was not something I knew she was capable of. "I've… uh… been up, too,"

That didn't shock me for some reason. "Hmph- well… how was your day?"

She snorted. "Do you really care?"

No. "Well, I…"

"All right, I'll tell you what. We're both completely bored, and my Nav is almost out of power; so are you coming to my base or am I going to Mossdeep?"

I stole a glance at my Nav's radar: she was on Route 113. Filled with elation, I beamed into the moon, before reaching for Metagross' weather-worn ball on the windowsill.

"I'll be there in a half hour,"


	4. Stupidity and a Soup Can

And so _THAT_, boys and girls, is how Steven Stone and I ended up in my base staring at a can of soup.

* * *

_May Birch._

"Why do you have a soup can and no _can opener_, May?" Ignoring my melancholy expression, he groaned and shook the stupid Cambell's can in front of my face.

"Aw, shut it!" I snapped, resuming my bewilderment. Need a knife, need a knife, I plead silently. "Wait- do you have Armaldo with you?"

With a snap of his wrist, Steven flicked 6 balls from his pockets and onto the log desk. To my astonishment, one began to glow white, and Armaldo appeared next to us, tensed for a fight. I turned to him.

"Um, no battle today, Armaldo, sorry,"

He groaned sleepily, grinding together the scythe-like hands adorning his thick purple arms. His knives stretched out to admit himself back in his ball, but I grabbed the dull edge of his hand.

"Could you, uh…" The embarrassment was suddenly evident on my face. Come on May, pokerface it, for pete's sake! My back slinked with defeat, the blood rushed into my face. With as sigh, I snatched the blasted can off of the table and shoved it into his loose-hanging knife hands.

"Can you open this can of soup, please?"

Steven had the nerve to chuckle.

"I thought I told you to shut it, Taylor Hicks!" I hissed, baring my teeth. "-You're the one over here fancying soup-"

There was a loud pop, as Armaldo's thick claw easily penetrated the thin lid of the soup can. Still fuming, I thanked him without offering so much as a sideways glance; and he disappeared in a fissure of light into his ball.

Steven had gone to sit down at my leaf-topped desk, staring out of a hole in the wall that served as a window. I tried to ignore the way his slate colored eyes pierced into the electric night, the way he was always thinking. My obstinacy worked, and, grumbling, I upturned the can into a white bowl. The aluminum clattered noisily along the sides of the porcelain bowl, and the thick red contents sloshed into it.

I was about to shove it into the microwave when, to my annoyance, the soup stopped flowing out. I gave the top a sharp bang. Nothing. I tried again, this time putting my elbow into it. Still nothing.

"Stupid trick can!" I hissed, holding the open end to my eyes. I raised my hand to blow it from the back, grasping an empty pokeball in my fingers. Then, still holding the open end in front of my face, I blew it from the back, to loosen the contents of the can.

It worked a hell of a lot better than I thought it would.

* * *

The thick red glop was spewn from the can, and shot straight into my eyes. I clawed furiously at my face, splattering the soup all over the floor and onto the table. My eyes burned ravenously as I tried desperately to pry the frying eyeballs from my skull.

A murderous roar garbled loose from my tomato-filled mouth. "Aah! F***!!"

Frantic, I began pawing blindly through the cabinets, throwing antidotes and herbs to the ground around me. In my skirmish, a stray hand swung out wildly and impacted with the bowl on the counter. It flew from its perch and crashed headlong onto the floor, spewing a red ocean filled with white porcelain chunks all over my clothes and the wood beneath me. Meanwhile, my feet were slipping through the mess, threatening to send me tumbling to the floor.

Just then, a roll of paper towels was thrown down from the cabinet. Despite my volatile efforts to reach out a hand and grab it, it landed with a smacking sound into the treacherous sea of soup adorning the floor. Knowing it was helpless- yet ignoring the fact, I slapped a hand onto the counter for balance and bent over to grab the towels; but I was doomed. My fingers were unprepared for the wetness on the counter- and the wet metal slid out from beneath my grip and sent me dropping, face-first, into the mess.

"DAMMIT!!"

For a moment, I lay there, flailing in the soupy disaster. After several garbled gasps, I reached a hand up and onto the table- searching for a dry spot to hoist myself up with. I failed several times, and was thrown back onto the floor with each effort. Finally, my fingers clasped an iron bar on the wall; it was cool, solid, and dry. Though my sneakers slid threateningly beneath my weight again, I clasped on as hard as I could, and yanked myself to my feet.

Through the garbled gasps and the redness staining my vision, I could meekly make out my savior.

* * *

Steven stood there, dark eyes wide, grasping my sticky fingers between his. Through my blurry vision, I could make out his darkly clothed form, frozen in shock, and completely unsoiled. I, however, might as well have just gotten into a mud fight with Swamps. In a soup factory. Only difference was, I did it all myself. I was so proud of me! BAHH, how embarrassing!

He did nothing but gape openmouthed at me, this formidable girl who had just gotten into a treacherous battle with a soup can and stood (sort of) victorious. Through my deep breathing, I grinned up at him, waiting for his response.

"That was, um…"

My grin faded modestly, and I settled with a one sided smile. Then the words came out before I even knew what the heck I was saying.

"I'm sorry about your soup, but I, uh… yeah. I can go make something else-" I gestured at the snake-like vine that dangled from the hole in the floor. "This island's full of food,"

His calm, serene laugh came, to my relief.

"It's alright. I was really just hoping you would do something amusing,"

In the middle of my laughter, I almost forgot for a moment that I was coated with tomato soup, until I allowed myself one fatal sigh afterwards. The stench writhed angrily in my nostrils, and I flinched away from his grip, struck with anguish.

"Oh gosh! I need a shower!" My eyes darted helplessly around the base, but there was, of course, no bathroom here. Damn!

Suddenly, his hand reached out to pat my head. "I don't smell a thing,"

WHAT?! That completely caught me off guard. Everything that had been kicked into overdrive moments ago calmed; compellingly so, and my heart slowed down. The joints in my knees were reduced to jelly, and I almost fell back into the red lake on the floor with shock. He couldn't mean that, could he…?

With strangely gentle, cool onyx eyes, he gestured me to sit down. Bewildered, I obeyed. This next thing was so predictable that I nearly laughed. My wet bottom nearly ejected me from the chair, but with a loud 'Ha!' I caught the table's edge angrily with my sticky fingers.

"Not this time, pal!" I declared happily.

His responding laugh made my face burn with embarrassment. This was not my usual behavior; but who could blame me?

"Err, I rehearsed that?"

He looked up at me, still chuckling. "Sure you did, May,"

"Alright, so is this what you wanted? We're both here and alive-" An involuntary sniffing of my nose reminded me. "Even though I smell like a Ravioli factory, no comments necessary, Nimäe,"

In the corner where she had laid herself out silently, my willowy Absol chortled in her wind chime-like voice. It was just like her to make a joke out of everything bad that happened to me. But of course, this was all my doing. I didn't need her mockery or the smell of rotting tomatoes in my shoes to remind me.

"Isn't there something completely obnoxious about talking pokémon? It's like there's no off button." Steven mused, shaking his head.

Knowing it would annoy Nimäe, I nodded in agreement. "No off button," I aimed her way.

Fuming, Nimäe snarled, slunk to the edge of the hole, and disappeared into the black night. We both turned back to face each other, wondering what to say next.

After a few blank minutes, we both mopped up the sticky crimson splotches off the floor and countertop. It was a surprisingly leisure, enjoyable activity, considering how awkward it should've been.

* * *

I watched his fingers slowly crawl through his hair, idle, and then settle back on the table. Some settled butterflies in my stomach began to erupt into chaos again.

"So, this was…" He groped for something inoffensive. "Um, extremely entertaining,"

I laughed nervously. Was he leaving, already?

"-I think I should head home now. I'm sorry for giving you all this trouble."

"It's not a problem, just um," Please don't go, Steven, please don't!

Just as he began to stand up, my hand flew out from my side and caught his hand. His eyes were shocked, drawing from my hand to the exit.

I didn't release his hand. "No. Don't go anywhere."

My nerves raged, and I let out a weary sigh. Everything in brain screamed for me not to do what I was about to do. "I have something to tell you,"

Slowly, he sat back down with prying eyes, trying to see through my sudden panic. Should've told him not to waste his time; I couldn't even explain to myself what I was thinking.

"Steven Stone," I began. "I'm a cheater. I'm a cheater and a liar and a fake and-"

"I know."

My hand dropped away from his, open with shock. I had to blink twice, to reprocess the simple sentence over in my head to understand what he meant. But once I was done, I blinked again.

"Wh-what?"

He shook his head wearily, smiling half way. "In the championship battle. The revival roots, the egoism. I know, I know."

It wasn't until he reached over to brush his fingertips over my cheek that I realized I was crying. Internally, I scoffed. I was _crying_, for pete's sake! But even my mocking, prideful instincts couldn't withstand the emotion I felt. It wasn't quite elation, nor was it embarrassment. It was _relief_, in one of its most powerful, withering forms.

Through my increasing sobs, I averted my gaze. "If you knew, than why didn't you…?"

"Call of the battle? Have you stripped of your license? Because I was having way too much fun,"

"I was fun? And was the beginning of the battle before I cheated…? Was it easy?" I muttered, bitterly waiting for his answer.

He pondered that. "Easy in the form of _predictable_,"

Tch. I was predictable?

"…Oh…"

At this point I managed to silence my tears, cradling my head into his palm. "Do you think I would still have won without cheating?"

A devilish smile slowly lit his features, and I knew the answer instantly. We both said it in unison.

"Probably not,"

"Ha ha, but I guess I have an excuse,"

Subconsciously, we both leaned toward each other at the table. I can't imagine how stupid I must've looked- covered in tomatoes and smelling even worse.

"And what would that be?"

That got me; could I tell him what I'd been thinking all along? That I was a stupid fangirl, desperate for him like everyone else?

I had to spit the words out. "You're, uh, kind of distracting,"

Once again, I'd baffled him. He raised an eyebrow, as if he didn't know what I meant. "Distracting how?"

The hot rush of blood that surged into my face undoubtedly clearly illustrated the answer. His dark eyes immediately averted from mine, locking awkwardly with the floor. Blushing harder at his reaction, I bit my lip, knowing both of my secrets were done and gone with. Didn't he have anything embarrassing to share? Like maybe he fed his Metagross horseshoes when he ran out of zigzagoon? Anything!

After a moment, he looked back up at me. His steely gaze hit me with a jolt; it was filled with electricity now. It nearly hurt to look. It hurt in a beautiful way.

"Maybe we should go to Mossdeep now. There's a bathroom at my house." He stood up, his hand outstretched to me. "And plus, I have something to show you,"

I nodded, and without hesitation, we leaped down the hole in the floor, to be engulfed into the starry island night.


	5. A Virtuous Kind of Stupid

**Author's Note: **This chapter is more romantic than the others; won't give any hints, but it's the most explicit I can get due to the T rating that I don't want to change to turn readers away. Enjoy!

...

Empty conversation filled the minutes we spent slinking from between the dark, thick twines of vine and plant- the real conversation began when we were only a fifth of a mile from the beach's edge.

"So when did you start getting into rocks, anyway?" I asked as we trekked over another bush of citrus stargazers, still illuminate in the blackness with clear beads of dew.

Swiping away absentmindedly a bushel of berries, he bit down on his lip. "I'll tell you that another time,"

What was wrong with now? I wondered, annoyed, as I snuck and bagged a ripe Sitrus berry that was dangling off the corner of the abandoned branch.

"Fine, then. But for the record, I'm surprised nobody calls you a nerd for that."

"Who said they don't?"

An angry shiver went down my spine. Who'd made fun of him? I'll kick their skinny-

Breathe, May, breathe. "Well, I've never noticed, really." I muttered, letting the boiling anger smolder itself in the deepest edges of the damp forest.

His hand stretched out to clear a final branch of plant, and we stepped out into the moonlight.

The first thing I saw was how his mouth fell slack, curling into a small smile on the side.

"Oh… wow," he whispered.

I nodded without averting my eyes from the ivory moon. Everything around me was glowing now; the leaves of olive glistening on the tips, dappled with silver drops, and the silky beads of white sand, like velvet in every aspect- the way the air seethed with invisible electricity. It wicked away the moisture glazing my skin and all of my previous worries as soon as I stepped toward the open shore.

Smiling, I turned to him. "Amazing, isn't it?" As much as I wished I could, there was no way to stop how the words melted and were dragged away into the ocean breeze.

He nodded silently. I watched in solemn surprise as Steven kneeled down and dipped his fingertips in the water, swirling it around, watching the silver light dance off of the ripples it made.

"It's like electricity," I whispered in such a hushed tone that my voice trailed out over the ocean waves and sat down cross-legged beside him.

Softly, he laughed. "Without the pain," Then, he ran a worn-but-smooth hand through my hair, repeating.

For a moment, the comfort and static I felt was foreign. Something new had been added to it; intertwining coyly with my perfect, silent steel evening. It was warmer, more binding than I'd ever realized it to be. I looked at the silver-haired man in front of me, and let out a single, strange chuckle. The warmth instantly flared up in my heart. This one hit me with a shock. Could it be…?

Before I could let the thought slip into my consciousness again, I leaned my head peacefully on his shoulder to stare out at the waves. He looked back at me with startling, prodding eyes.

"Would it be of annoyance to you if…?" the words trailed off, leaving me hanging.

I pushed his arm, smiling, encouraging. "If what?"

"It's…" once again, the words trailed away over the ocean's lapping waves. Then suddenly, he stood up. "We ought to go now. Who will be our means of transportation?" he said with a laugh.

I sighed. So he wasn't going to tell me. "Well…" Letting the grin dramatically fill my face, I pointed to a shadow in the corner of the tiny beach.

He stared, mouth agape, right where I pointed; somewhere in the darkness the shadow twitched. "May, what is-"

He was silenced by the rocking of the ground beneath our feet. With a beckoning of my hand, Tropia's massive, broadleaved head stretched out and into the light before us.

"Don't be shy! We need a ride!"

I watched, grinning, as Steven forced his open mouth shut and peered into the shadows. Tropia stepped through the sand and slid to a stop in front of us. With a high-pitched, triple octave call, the flying beast dropped a wing-like leaf before us; an invitation.

Steven muttered something to himself, and then turned to me, a strange combination of conservativeness and steely water in his eyes.

"Well, all right then. Let's go,"

Tropia's back was every bit as wide as it was powerful; both Steven and I could fit comfortably under the protection of his broad back leaves. Acting as seasoned and suave as I could, I latched a foot onto a groove between the leaves and leapt up onto Tropia's back, sliding perfectly into place along the wall. I outstretched a hand towards Steven, still on the ground, with a challenging smirk on my face.

Narrowing his eyes, Steven climbed on; without a hint less of grace than I had. He sat down opposite of me, frowning.

"See? You had nothing to brag about," he said with bitter immaturity.

I tried to contain my laughter; I had never seen him act with a twinge of childishness before- _ever_. It was… cute.

Tropia grunted impatiently, and I crawled toward his neck to speak.

"All right, onward: Mossdeep, please,"

I was expectant of his following unhappy grunt.

"I know, I know, it's far. But you want a big bowl of poke blocks, don't you? Don't you?" I egged, patting his thick flank.

He paused, pondering that.

I egged him on. "Biiig bowl of poke blocks. Green ones. Your _favorite_,"

Groaning with surrender, he lifted his flying leaves, readying for flight. Nodding once, I turned to sit down across from Steven again. But on the way, I turned my head:

"Thanks, buddy,"

The second I had taken my place amongst the thick canopy of back leaves that Tropia had curled over Steven and I, I felt the soft swish of sand being strewn gently out of place by my Tropius' strangely smooth trot. Just near the edge of the water, a heavy grunt rolled from Tropia's mouth; and he launched himself off of the coast, and into the midnight air.

The bulb-like canopy Tropia made rendered the area entirely dark, except for one eye-shaped spot; right where the enormous leaves crossed paths above us sending a filter of blue moonlight seeping like a whisper through and into the center. The dim light was like silver candlelight; it made it so I could barely draw out the contours of his pale face and tenacious, slate colored eyes directly across from me.

As if the words were destined to come out at some point, I bit my lip and whispered to him through the blackness.

"You know, you're not the only collector on earth,"

He didn't seem surprised to hear that. "Hm?"

The butterflies that I thought I'd well locked away began to remind me of their presence. Biting my lip barder, I continued. "-do you promise not to laugh at me?"

Astonishment struck his features. "Laugh? I'm the stone nerd over here. As long as it's not soup cans-" he chuckled, much to my dismay. Why'd he have to remind me that I smelled like crap? "-I swear to you that I won't laugh,"

Pouting playfully, I folded my arms over my chest and leaned back against the leafy walls. "Aw, shoot. I guess I can't tell you now,"

"Oh come on, I want to know,"

"Really?"

"Truly,"

I sighed. I guess I'd set myself up for it, anyway. Just as I was about to choke out the words, they caught in my throat. I tried to force them out, but they stuck, dry and soundless inside of me. _You set yourself up for it, May. Sorry, _I thought to myself. Then, exhaling the enormous bowl of air I'd been holding in my chest- I dumped the contents of my backpack onto the center of the floor into the beam of moonlight.

For a moment, he sat still, drawing his eyes from me to the small, multicolored berries that lay out in front of him.

His eyes finally stopped at mine, holding the assumption, wanting confirmation.

I sighed. "Yes, Steven, I collect berries." Suddenly, I felt relief settle the butterflies in my stomach; they were long extinct. Always, always after I admitted something to Steven, excitement replaced my fears. He was a plague; a plague that brought electric elation instead of hell.

"All sorts of them, too- that there is a Rabuta, and an Iapapa," I said, my voice picking up.

Snapping my gaze from him to the pile in front of us, I ran my trembling fingers through the purple, red and yellow mess I'd laid out. "And this one is a Cornn-" Before I could finish, I smiled modestly. "I kinda snatched that one from a Zigzagoon,"

He nodded, fingering a Kelpsy, before he spoke.

"All right, since we're sharing things now-"

"Huh?" I interrupted, shocked. "You have something worse than that? I collect _BERRIES_ for crying out loud! That completely goes against my nature,"

To that he laughed, admitting to my honesty. It was a pretty peculiar instance to see May the Egoist scraping up berries, but he ignored that fact.

"I suppose that's true, but I don't know if you're aware of it, but you're rather…" He grinned roguishly. The extinct butterflies flittered vengefully in my stomach.

"…arbitrary,"

Geez, he just had to go dictionary on me. Luckily, I spent my entire existence after I'd defeated him scanning my Nav's dictionary pointlessly.

Instead of allowing the bewilderment to cross my face (as I'm sure he wanted), I grinned back, equally impish, and crawled closer to him; grinning wider at the way his eyes narrowed.

"I thought I was a predictable egoist?"

Looking unsurprised as usual, Steven bit his lip and leaned forward toward my gaze. Now I could feel his slow breathing on the thin skin of my face.

"That was during the _battle_," he muttered, staring strangely- as if questioning something- into my eyes, the cool silver ocean bubbling over with thought. Then, he closed his desperately wandering eyes, and when they reopened to me, his voiced picked up.

"Anywhere _else_, I never know what the hell you're going to do next! For goodness sake, what are you trying to-"

My lips interrupted his rant, pressing down desperately onto his. His eyes flashed open wide, and then lowered, hiding half of his storm cloud-colored irises behind his eyelashes. "May, no… what are you…?" he muttered limply around the kiss. Ignoring the question, I leaned into him, mindless with passion, pressing down on his shoulders with my hot-blooded hands. With a low moan, he surrendered, and wrapped his arms around my back.

In that second, the chilly steel lake I saw in his eyes flowed through my veins, recklessly shocking every nerve- like I was standing at the edge of my beach staring out into the glowing water, but with some thin screen torn away from my entire body.

I think he knew very well what I've been trying to do.

I had to pull away first; and tearing myself away from his lips was nearly impossible. Once I leaned away by an inch, he grabbed me by the shoulders and held me down. But his grip wasn't affectionate- it was like he was angry.

"What's wrong?" I asked, reaching up a hand to pat down my disheveled hair. To my surprise, he held down my hand, too.

"I…" Steven began, sounding sadder with each word. "-I shouldn't be doing this. I kept telling myself-"

"_Stop it_," I squirmed out from under his meek grip. He looked away with the storm clouds still filling his expression. "Forget about whatever it is that's bugging you- it's not important now. Relax. We're in paradise, for crying out loud,"

That was true. Momentarily I looked away from him to see that the bulb of shade that Tropia's leaves had created had begun to relax- opening up and revealing the jet black night sprinkled with glistening stars, and mostly the silver moon, resting comfortably atop its glowing perch in my steel night.

Suddenly absent, I crawled to the edge of Tropia's flank to look into the deep waters below us. Steven sat right beside me.

"Look- we're almost there." He said, leaning back onto the thick leaf.

We made a gentle curve around the coast of the island, just at the edge of the water. I waited for Tropia to head into Mossdeep and swoop in for a landing, but he didn't.

I realized idly that Tropia's back was tipping over- turning- at a snail's pace. Repositioning myself so I was more securely nestled into the leaf, I tapped confusedly on Tropia's neck. "Hey, buddy, what are you-"

Ice replaced the words in my throat, as Tropia's thick, trunk-like neck- so much more massive than mine- curled around to face me. In his eyes was an unshakable devilish glint.

"No! No- you wouldn't-"

He already had.

"Steven- hold on!" I screamed, clinging to Tropia's green wing as the turn became absolute.

It was useless- our bodies slipped helplessly from the safety of Tropia's back, until we were finally ejected clear off of his back and dropped into the air.

I screeched, clawing through the thin air for a grip, finding none.

"AAAH! No!"

The sudden rush of air whipped into my face stung ever inch of skin on my body, as the drop quickened and intensified. Horrified, I tried to force my burning, tearing eyes downwards to find an end to my drop, but it came to meet me before I could.

There was an enormous SPLASH as my wind-whipped body was suddenly struck with intense cold- my face slashed cruelly with the wet chill, and I was driven deep into the black waves. Another, even louder splash sounded after mine as the waves immediately split in an explosion of foam.

Once the chilling shock and thick wisps of foam cleared from my eyes, I snapped my head frantically around in the black water, looking for him. Though wide-eyed and struck as I was, Steven was there, feet beside me, white crystals of oxygen gasping from his open mouth. Shooting him an upward glance, I pointed toward the silvery, sliced sheet of light that blasted through the filmy surface of the waves. We both kicked up to the surface, gasping like hell.

My face broke through the surface, pulling my water-darkened hair up behind me. His hair split the surface first, and then his dumbfounded expression, half covered by his sopping wet bangs, rose up to meet me- Steven's words came out in struggled, audible breaths.

"._EARTH_?" he gasped, swatting his crystal-coated silver hair from his face.

His question was answered by a mocking, triple octave call over our heads. We looked up- and across the glowing white moon flew a huge, dark, winged shadow. He swooped, somersaulted gleefully in flight, and then disappeared into a white fissure. I felt a gentle rumble along my belt as Tropia returned to his ball.

"I will kill him for this!" I garbled, spitting the salty water from my mouth. Angrily shaking my head, I turned to Steven, and felt a hot shake. He was dripping wet, crystals of water glistening in the blue moonlight, the prematurely grey hair sliding stubbornly back over his eyes. Somehow, he was smiling, smiling as if he had won the lottery instead of played dunk tank- through the softening pants.

My heart sped again, and this time, he kissed me- without a second's hesitation. Sighing happily, I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and closed my eyes.


	6. The Realization

With a sigh, I leaned away to give Steven a questioning look. "You're aware how crazy this is, right?" I whispered, taking a lax chuckle at the end.

His eyes instantly averted to the moon, which sat comfortably in the black night. Something in my question had hurt him. "More than you know,"

Feeling suddenly apologetic, I put a hand on his jaw and kissed him. "I'm sorry. You really shouldn't ever believe a word I say,"

He pulled back and shot me a serious, aged look. I wished he wouldn't do that- he's so much more attractive when he acts youthful.

That's not to say that the serious side is half bad, either…

After some laughs, and even more shoving of heads under the water, we clambered out of the jet black waves and onto the pale beach. We trekked comfortably down the beaches until we were interrupted by a tremendous wall of black obsidian, holding Mossdeep above and in front of us.

Tropia had dumped us on the ONLY side of the island without STAIRS.

Lovely.

I'm sure he was trying to make me feel pathetic, because he was already almost at the top of the wall while I hadn't even put a foot on it yet. In an attempt to be chivalrous, he offered to help me up the wet rocks, glistening dangerously with dewy ocean water in the background. I denied, of course. It would be quite the noble stab to my dignity to ask for or accept _assistance_.

"Suit yourself," Steven shrugged, and cleared the final boulder onto Mossdeep, leaving me feet below him on the beaches.

The tide lapped soothingly at the sand, but I could sense the mockery behind the foamy waves. Baring my teeth, I slapped a hand onto a rocky crag in the wall, and began my climb.

My feet must have been 15 feet from the beach floor now. My aching fingers hunted for another grip, slithering out from the wall over and over. I took a nervous upward glance, to see if Steven was there watching me suffer. All I could see was the dark night sky and the mossy green grass, nourished by the sea, adorning the Mossdeep ground. With a sigh, I reached a foot up to step into a crevice. At first, my foot locked comfortably into the crack, but then, to my horror, the toe of my shoe slipped wildly from the wall. My feet scrambled instinctively to find my footing, but my terror-fed efforts to latch on were futile- and my dripping body was suspended by my handhold, threatening to drag me down at any breathing instant. I could hear my breath catch, the way my heart raced into madness. Frantic, I whimpered, hoping the ground was lower than I'd estimated.

"Help, please, help!" I rasped, the hoarseness overcoming the desperation in my plea. The slipperiness of the rock was beginning to overwhelm my already moist hold on the obsidian. Suddenly, there was a tired crackling sound from the heart of the black rock in front of me. Just a crack. My heart lurched sickeningly as the cool water glazing my skin betrayed me.

"No-" I gasped, eyes wide with terror. There was a terrible lurching- I heard something deep inside the stone structure crack. Eyes bulging, my lips parted and formed the words. No. Don't let this happen. Please, please, no. Then I found my voice.

"NO!"

Before I could comprehend what was going on, I was dropping. The space in my palm where I had hung from the rock was now clasping all but a measly chunk of black stone.

"HELP!"

Suddenly, my drop was halted, torn roughly upward by my wrists. For a shocked moment, I hung there, my shocked glance shooting from the ground I was spared of, to the wet, black rocks that had tried to kill me. Finally, I swallowed and looked up from the still spot where I dangled.

"I recall that you said you wouldn't need my help," Steven said, eyes twinkling with laughter.

Welcoming the warmth flooding through my veins without any embarrassment, I grinned back.

"_I_ recall that I said not believe a word I say,"

……………………………………………………………………………………….

"Hm," he laughed, still holding me over the cliff. "That you did,"

How long was he going to leave me dangling here?

"Yes, indeed. Now can you…" I gulped, loathing what I had to say.

He smiled lightly, challenging me. Strangely enough, it didn't bug me. For one time that I'd needed help, I was fine with asking.

"Help me, please?"

His eyes widened, and then he smiled wider, tugging me up by my wrists and helping me to stand. Naturally, my gaze drew ahead, but then stopped, frozen. Mystique swept off of the dark grass, swaying tenderly with the low sea breeze that lapped at my ankles. Deep terra-cotta colored houses stood in shadow, modest in the moonlight and prominent lining the road.

Steven's voice shook me from my brief stupor. "Well, at least there'll be no need for a shower, now, will there?"

The water that had soaked me to the bone was now drying- but somewhere in the back of my mind I realized that I didn't feel saltiness wicking into me. So I muttered blankly,

"Is this a freshwater area?"

Steven nodded and pointed out toward the ocean without glancing from me.

"Yes. Further out toward Lilycove there's saltwater, but around the coast-" He took a moment to stare out into the lapping waves. "-there's close to none. That's why the Sharpedo prefer the outer oceans, and the Wailmer lounge here."

His last five words sparked a memory. What was it…? Oh yeah- that reminded me of the annoying little boy that sat by the edge of the water- every day- reminding me to go Wailmer watching, one of the city's exclusive attractions.

Once again, I'd let myself get lost in a daze.

When I shook my head to clear my brain, I realized the quizzical look Steven was giving me.  
"Maybe that drop did more than I thought. Come on- my house is up here,"

Ignoring him, I leaped off of the rock I had been juggling my foot on and strolled ahead down the road.

"I know where it is," I said, smiling in welcome of my impishness.

I turned my head to him, skipping now, laughing merrily into sky at the way he rolled his eyes and walked after me. Me- _skipping_- all the way down the road.

For once I had not a care in the world.

……………………………………………………………….

The inside of his house was nothing new- same old tan walls, white floor that turned into shag on one side of the room. But somehow it looked different now. It was like everything was glowing; I felt more welcome. More than I ever had at my own home in Littleroot. My house had never been vital to me- I considered my base my home-away-from-house.

I toggled my glass of water, pondering.

I'd never spent a lot of time at home, but I had promised my mom a visit today. Sinking deeper into the couch, I admitted that she would completely ice me out later, but it was all of 1 AM in the morning. There was no way she would be awake by now- my perfect, moral abiding mother. She could never learn about this.

"I noticed that you're never here much," I said, glancing up from the crystal glass I clutched awkwardly in both hands.

He sighed. "That's true. I spent most of my time in the League…"

Unanimously we flinched, for reasons we were both aware of.

I strained my voice so low I was afraid he wouldn't hear me. "I'm so sorry. It all seemed to make sense at the time,"

"It's… alright."

Next thing I knew, I was biting my lip, fighting back sobs as best I could. Look what I'd _done_ to him- just like Norman, who'd been embarrassed that I'd beat him, except that this was worse. At least then I'd actually _won_. Now, I was just a sham of a trainer. I didn't even deserve to _be_ a trainer.

The wetness that splashed my eyelids upon blinking told me. I was crying again. Ashamed, I looked away from him and sipped the glass of water.

Ugh, what was with me lately?

Looking miserable with himself for having brought it up, Steven got up and sat beside me on the couch, stroking my head.

"Really it is. I'm sorry, May. Let's talk about something else,"

Sighing shakily, I spat out the first thing I could think of. "So what were you planning on doing after I'd… beat… you?"

That switched off the conversational light in the back of his eyes. Instantly, his eyes were wandering again. "Well, I was planning on taking some time away from here. Maybe visit Kanto for a bit. I've been interested in the cities lately,"

I hoped he hadn't noticed the way I stiffened at 'away from here'. But then I wondered, what was stopping him? It had been two weeks since our battle and he had every incentive to leave- escape some embarrassment. Do some training. Forget a traitor.

My eyebrows tightened questioningly over my dry, irritated eyes.

"What made you stay?"

His eyes snapped shut at my question. Sighing mutedly, I wondered if I'd said something wrong, since I'd been doing that a lot lately. What was wrong…?

Silence poured into my brain, intoxicating and drowning everything it reached. I realized with blank awareness that now he was crouched over me, staring with strange approach into my eyes- as if drawing deathly close to a frightened pokémon.

"You,"

Wincing back at him, I let my mouth gently fall slack. In my heart something wilted. At the same time, I could feel something new come alive.

"You can't mean that-"

"But I do,"

All I could hear through my blur of thoughts was the gritting of his teeth.

"And before I change my mind I'm going to say it right now. May, I…"

Every trace of questioning was gone now. The wilted piece of my heart opened its mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

"I love you. And this is wrong and ridiculous and dangerous but…" He chuckled meekly, drifting again. "But I don't care anymore. I want you to know that I'm not going to try to keep you here. You're a traveler, I know that. You should be happy with your life. My obsessions aren't your problem,"

It took me a long minute to catch my breath, drain the silent ocean from my mind. Once it was all gone, the facts solid and dry in my head, it was surprisingly easy to speak.

"I'm not going anywhere. Not soon."

"Why not?"

"Because," I said, patting down my hair instinctively. My fingers drew droplets of water from the strands- blankly curious, I glanced down at the white carpet, where a dark stain and the crystal glass lay beside the couch. Strangely I didn't care.

I looked back at him, and smiled. "Because I'm not sure, but I-" I hugged him hard, ignoring the way my arms trembled with confusion, the way my confused mind screamed.

"I think I might love you, too,"

Disbelief paralyzed him for a second, pulling his lips to mouth the words, 'Wow, I guess even I can be lucky'.

"Well," he muttered when he found his voice, drawing an awkward hand through his silver locks. "I guess we've had enough excitement for one night,"

To that I had to laugh- it was hard to believe that it was 1 am, that in moments I'd become years wiser, that Steven was really in love with me…

I relaxed and leaned back on the couch. Suddenly the spilled glass of water that was drying on the carpet slipped through my mind, and with another look into his dark eyes slipped right back out.

"Hardly," I told him, coiling comfortably onto the couch. "Good night,"

His whisper-soft sigh wound itself into the vortex of my mind that was traveling into dreamland. In my half-consciousness I heard nothing but his hushed words.

"Good night, May,"

And into my dreams I drifted.

…………………………………………………………………………….

Discomfort racked me awake the next morning, shaking me into confusion.

"Steven? Where are…?" An annoying rumbling sensation nipped by back and interrupted me.

My back pocket was vibrating. Rolling onto my side, I reached into my back pocket to pull out my Nav. A message scrolled across the screen.

With a strangled splutter, my heart stopped. The note read:

_**Champion May Birch of Littleroot, you have been summoned forth to the Pokémon League for **_**immediate**_** trial. **_

Signed the Pokémon League Officials of Court.


	7. Double Edged Sword

-That was the subject of the message. Trembling, I dared myself to read the next few words, and then laughed with relief once my eyes finished scrolling the screen.

**You have been summoned forth to a Championship battle with qualified challenger Gabriella Tyler. The scheduled battle will occur at 12 PM today. You must be in the battle chamber and prepared promptly at 11 AM. That is all. **

…Just a battle. Why had I been so panicked? I sighed, sitting up on the couch, until I glanced at the clock at the bottom of my Nav.

It was 10:42. Dammit! Only 15 minutes to get over there!

I thanked my lucky stars that I was in Mossdeep instead of my base, while I dunked my head into the kitchen sink to wash my face and screamed out for Steven. At the same time my fingers scrabbled onto the countertop to find my head scarf. I found nothing but granite for a few seconds, hearing no response to my call, until my hunting hand finally hit cloth. In one swift movement, I yanked my face out of the water, dried it with the scarf, and tied it around my head tightly, hoping to conceal the tangled mess of ash brown that was my mane.

"Steven, are you here? HELLOOO?" I called into the house with finality, standing in front of the door. Hearing nothing, I wheeled around, to bang into the oak slab in front of me. My hand slapped onto my forehead, covering half of my eyesight with my palm- but in my throbbing side vision I saw a white note flutter down onto the floor. Despite the fact that the last thing I wanted to do was read, I picked it up and scanned it, my hand still held over my pulsing forehead.

_May,_

_ Last night I decided I had some thinking to do. I won't be there when you wake up._

_ I Love you._

Steven Stone

Waves of throbbing swept through my vision, but I carefully folded the note and crammed it into a vacant slot in my belt, rushing outside- this time remembering to open the door. Tropia immediately appeared beside me, muttering his triple octave call.

I threw a leg over the lower, narrower surface of Tropia's back and slid on.

"Ever Grande. The League- pronto!"

With a high pitched grunt, Tropia kicked off of his back legs- knocking me back several inches where I sat, and threw himself into the air to clear the grassy plain, suspending us over the ocean. In every wing beat, he flew us closer and closer to the unimaginable.

…………………………………………………….

In the heat of flight, Tropia dropped low and gently tipped to the side, grazing slits in the water. The sapphire waves felt different swooping over them now- expressionless, secretive. Like it was teasing beauty to people, hiding its midnight mystique for me, and me only. Correction- Steven and I. The steel colored water was _ours_.

From atop Tropia's back, I mocked myself. There were a bunch of people that claimed songs, places, trees… as their own. But they were never really alone.

Privacy was a blissful illusion, just like everything else that had happened last night.

…………………………………………………..

Ever Grande, rustling below me, had become a sea of multicolored chaos. The shimmering jade grass was completely concealed beneath a fuming crowd of humans. Sneering faces looked up to stare headlong into the sky where Tropia and I circled to swoop in. For a moment I was afraid. It was only a private battle. What was this audience…?

"It's her!" A raged voice screamed, pointing at me as I landed Tropia and dismounted.

Tropia stepped forward defensively lowering his massive neck to sweep around the faces of the furious crowd. I walked, quivering, through the mass, my flying monster at my heels, until I stood on the opposite side of the crowd.

Staggering back under the quivering finger of the accusers, I spoke to them. "What's going on here? I came for a Championship battle-"

"You come for a Championship battle," a man hissed, coiling the finger into a shaking fist.

"-But you are not the Champion,"

Wide eyed, I staggered away from him, my heart dropping into somewhere deep in the melting mass of terror that was me.

From every voice of the mass came one terrible, agreeing word.

"Cheater,"

……………………………………………………..

_ Steven Stone._

It was midmorning. Metagross was taking a much deserved rest. As much as I willed the same for my mind, my efforts to let last night's events go had proved futile. The budding gold sunlight brought shimmering lime streaks from the leaves of plantlife around the waterfall, an attempt at comfort. But I couldn't help but feel… deadened.

Carefully slipping back into memory, I recalled our conversation last night, right after I'd stupidly brought up our battle in the League.

…

_Everything in me screamed not to utter the deadliest words I would ever speak in my life. But they came out anyway, and the second they had I knew that it was all true; all was fair… in love and in war. Whether it was inside you or not. _

_ So I said it. _

"_I love you. And this is wrong and ridiculous and dangerous, but somehow I don't care anymore." The immediate shock that struck her face, now drained colorless, told me that I needed to sympathize for her. "I want you to know that I'm not going to try to keep you here. You're a traveler, I know that. You should be happy with your life. My obsessions aren't your problem,"_

_ For the first time ever, I looked closely at her, everything in me vulnerable. I found no relief in the fact that the edge I'd been standing on for so long had just been jumped. I was in the middle of the deadly drop- and I hadn't hit the bottom yet. _

_ Her motionless brown eyes suddenly twitched. Then she took in a deep breath, and her words came calmly. "I'm not going anywhere. Not soon,"_

_ …What…?_

_ "Why not?" I asked, searching for emotion in her expression._

_ "Because," I saw her eyes draw a line toward the floor where the spilled glass of water lay being absorbed thirstily by the shag. Oops. I'd tell her later that I'd knocked it from her hand while in my pedophilic confession. "Because I'm not sure, but I think I might love you, too,"_

_ Everything went blank in that very second. A light went off somewherein the back of my mind, but I couldn't see it. I knew if I didn't end this right now, I would explode._

…

So here I was, wandering outside the cave on Ever Grande, trying to clear my head. I'd left the house early that morning, maybe 4. Sleep was something I'd learned to live without. In my foggy mind I remembered how many nights I'd spent restlessly clawing around in caves, desperate for any stones I could find. I'd even settle for a basic fire stone on occasion, just to give myself an excuse to sleep.

…………………………………………………………………………..

Gabby and Ty had clambered by earlier, heading into Victory Road- and, based on the excited looks they kept giving each other, appearing as though they had their hands on quite the scandal. Even though those … people… clearly heard the soulless venom in my "Hello", they asked me about my defeat a week ago- with a strange, knowing smirk on their faces. I dismissed them with a wholehearted threat, and they, still obnoxiously bubbly, scurried into the darkness of the cave.

Something in me wanted to follow them. Distraction would be good for me. Now that I thought about it, it wasn't May I was mad at. Her solemn words in the coastal waters along my home made me wince to think about:

"_You should never believe a word I say,"_

…

Last night she'd said 3. I truly loved May, but how _could_ I believe her? After… everything…?

An enraged roaring stabbed through my thoughts. I was on my feet in a flash, spinning around toward the cave where the noise had come from. It was probably an angry Lairon. Picking up some low humming, I crept closer toward the edge of the cave- it came louder.

From my spot perched among the flowerbeds, I strained my hearing to its most powerful stretch. In a split second, I knew what it was.

Voices. Hundreds of them, on the other side of the cave. Engraved feet above the cave entrance was a hole, elaborately concealed behind throws of vine and orange flora. It was a secret shortcut, leading to the top of the rock cave, where one could simply walk to the end and slide off, landing safely in the cushions of moss and shrub on the other side. Taking a deep breath, I wrapped my fingers around a thick vine that dangled astray from the drapes of secrecy and climbed, looking left and right for stray eyes, and then slid into the hole to crawl on my knees like a toddler.

It was a brief trek toward the dead end of the rocky crevice. Behind the loudening mumbles of sound I wondered instinctively how many rare rocks I could find up here…

"What have I done to myself?" I muttered with a laugh, climbing out of the hole into the bright sunlight above my head. The sky opened up, sheer and aquamarine, grazed by a few wisps of ivory cloud. The modest hums from the other side of Victory Road had become roars of voices, angry grunts, chants, occasional outbursts and laments of injustice.

Sliding off of the rock and landing carefully on my feet, I knitted my eyebrows in wonder. This was all so mindless. I hadn't remembered an event scheduled for today- I knew I was the ex-Champion, but they would have still informed me…

Struck with amazement, I scanned the crowd of people that faced away from me, looking for a flyer for an event or even just a familiar face. While I searched the massive, furious group, a grayish dot- I assumed a face- appeared out of nowhere. Ignoring it, I walked slowly forward, toward the edge of the raging crowd. Suddenly, that forgotten gray dot grew larger- the size of a human. The blob began to take shape amongst the others, growing faster and faster- a terrified instinct told me to back away. Now I could trace out legs, a torso, and a head-

I could feel the impact of a boulder throw my body backwards against the stone wall, ripping the air ruthlessly from my lungs.

My father's voice boomed over every mutter in the crowd.

"_**WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" **_

…………………………………………………………………

I could only stare back at him, dumbfounded. This was everything I'd been afraid of, everything I'd feared. I could see it in his hateful pair of eyes that bore into me, despising every ounce of my being.

I knew exactly what he meant. Pedophile. But how? How on Earth had he discovered something like this? I was given no time think.

_"How could you do such a thing? _Taint my name permanently with your… your…" He dug angrily for words, glaring into me with fire in his eyes. "She is _**fifteen**_, Steven! _**Fifteen years old!**_"

"Father, I can explain,"

"Explain what, exactly? What excuse in the _world_ could you have to molest a child?" He roared.

My eyes widened, my brain going blank. I realized in a thoughtless blur that my father had a fist raised to the air over my head, clenching between his white fingers a glistening iron shovel.

……………………………………………..

_May Birch._

Every face in that audience glared at me with stony hatred. There was nothing to explain, nothing I could say to lever their eyes off of me. So I stepped back, backing in Tropia in the effort.

Feeling like a trapped rabbit, I watched as the crowd began to part down the center revealing 12 darkly clothed figures, each with the pokeball emblem adorning the backs of their hands.

It was the Pokémon League Officials.

In the center was the shortest one, who stepped forward to glare at me with emotionless black eyes.

"The consequences, Miss Birch, will be dire for your lies. You must step down-"

I suddenly went blank when I took a moment to glance around his form. Across the short field in front of the Pokémon League where I stood, two people lingered far back, right outside the exit of Victory Road. I peered closer, my insides darkening at what I saw.

With his back facing me, was a heavyset gray-haired man, clad in a dark suit and hat. In his right hand, he held in the air a glistening stick of wood, the end topped with a flat plate of iron. A shovel.

Behind him stood a taller person, gray haired all the same. He looked unmoved, empty, as though he didn't realize he was glaring at death. Could it be…?

Instantly, my sneakers ripped at the earth, throwing my body forward faster than I had ever run. I tore through the shocked group of Officials, through the staring crowd, forgetting the accusations that couldn't keep up with my furious sprint.

In seconds, I had cleared the field and was feet away from them, my lungs roaring for oxygen.

The man swung down with the shovel, the iron head glistening in the midmorning sunlight. I twirled my heel to plow hard into the earth and spun around in front of Steven, throwing a hand in the air.

There was a sharp, echoing clang as metal collided with bone- behind it a hollow smack. I tore the shovel from his hands and threw it to the side, abandoned. Through my fury-reddened vision and angry pants, I made out the attacker's face.

"May!" He exclaimed, stepping backwards openhanded.

Mr. Stone?

I glared at him, trying with unimaginable effort not to snatch the shovel up and crack open his skull.

"What the hell is going on here?" I growled, still planted firmly in front of a shocked Steven.

"I… I'm so sorry about this, child. Justice will be served immediately-"

His drabbles made no sense. "What are you talking about?"

"We know what he's talking about,"

I wheeled around, looking for the voice, seeing only the rest of the crowd.

"Over, here May. Remember us?" Gabby chirped. "Remember last night?"

I shook my head no. I didn't know what else to do.

"Well we do," Ty answered through his grin. "_We_ ratted you two out,"


	8. A Final Cut

**Author's Note: **Alright guys, here it is; the ending of Steel Water- only followed by the Epilogue.

(Pssst, I'll be continuing this story in another Fic that I will have up in a few weeks!)

……………………………………………………..

I looked to the left and right, from one smug interviewer face to the other.

"What is going…"

Why was I even asking? What was going on was right there in the air in front of me, in front of every face in the crowd.

Gabby stepped forward to speak. "I'm sure you remember what happened last night. You see, we'd been poking around Mossdeep after a heady interview with the folks in the Space Center… And we happened to pass by Steven's window,"

"First of all," Ty began with a nod, pausing to adjust his camera lens to stare Steven and I in the face. "-You were talking about your battle with Steven over here, when he let it slip that you'd cheated in it."

A mocking laugh came from beside Ty. I reached a rigidly threatening hand toward the shovel I'd left idle at my side.

"That was all we'd needed. So we turned to leave, when-"

"When he," Gabby pointed a finger at Steven. "-came onto you,"

My mind went blank. When we were talking in his house? Could that be what she was talking about…? Then it hit me. Of course it was. The spilled water, the hushed intensity of conversation…

"So you're telling me," I growled. "That you were just walking around Mossdeep when you stuck your nasty faces in Steven's window and heard us talking about the battle? And that I'd… broken League Code? And now you think Steven… _raped_ me?"

They shrugged, as if that was all that mattered. As if the cheap scoop was all that they needed. I tried so hard to be angry, but the numbness in my brain was overwhelming.

"You can't be serious," I said breathlessly, stepping backwards. In an instant, Steven was in front of me.

Fury glinted in his eyes. "You've obviously made a mistake." Then his eyes shut. He looked at me. "I made a mistake. I'm so sorry,"

"You didn't do anything wrong," I hissed through my gritted teeth, never looking away from the petty traitors.

This time came a new voice. "We'd beg to differ,"

Between the solemn faces of the onlookers came the twelve sure-stepping Officials that had confronted me minutes ago. Somehow, their presence was more dignified this time. Now I knew why they were here, the punishments they were eager to lay out on us. I angrily scanned their darkly-clothed forms.

The heading one's sunglass-hidden gaze fell on Steven. "There must be consequences for this, especially you, Mr. Stone,"

His voice silenced the audience, Mr. Stone (Steven's father), glared furiously at his son.

Another, a taller one, piped up grimly. "I would have never thought…" he muttered.

It struck me oddly that I'd forgotten about them- especially once I saw that a few of them had brown splotches marring their black attire. Oh yeah, I'd thrown them in the dirt because they hadn't moved when I ran over here to stop that shovel...

"Steven, your punishment shall be issued without trial. The jury is before you today," The head Official said in a cold, infuriatingly level voice.

How could these monsters destroy lives in seconds? Remorselessly? It didn't make any sense, nothing did.

"In response to your crime of child molestation, you shall be sentenced…"

I couldn't contain myself.

"**For the last damned time, **_**he didn't do anything!**_**"** My muscles quivered, draining quickly every ounce of will that kept me from killing them.

"Calm down, maybe this will be good for the both of us," Steven whispered.

I forced in heavy breaths, for everyone's sake. The cruel head Official continued, ignoring my outburst, severing my heart in two.

"Steven Stone, I hereby sentence to you to leave Hoenn. Never come back,"

……………………………………………………….

A hushed word seeped from the unstirred crowd. _Banished_, their hundred voices breathed.

I nearly fell back into the blackness that suddenly gripped me steadfast.

"No. Please." I pleaded, trying helplessly to control the disappearance of my legs.

They ignored my anguish. "And you, Miss Birch," The tall one that had expressed his disbelief earlier turned to me.

Uncaring radiated off the Head Official's words. "Violation of League Code has severe consequences. Your punishment has been written, issued the same as others of the same proceedings."

A familiar voice in the audience spoke. "Empty your Computer Storage of every Pokémon you own," Norman said.

"Your license to train has been terminated,"

There was a dead pause in the crowd, not a word was uttered. It seemed everything had finally deceived me, broken everything in my heart. All of my Pokémon, all of the ones I had foolishly left in the System overnight. I'd say goodbye to them all.

I looked behind me, to see Steven slowly backing away from the crowd and toward Victory Road, forgotten.

More heartbroken blankness.

I looked at every face in the crowd, seeing all of them for the first time now. In the front row were people of my own family. My mom, Brendan, even Dad- he'd left field research just to come here to see me broken. The gym leaders, the nurses, the Day Care people… Even people that I'd battled in my past life.

"May, we have something else we'd like to propose,"

"Fire away," I said in my most deadened tone.

"You can gain back your license,"

That struck me with an extremely dull edge, like the words were some sort of an old plug whose outlet had died long ago.

The perished piece of me spoke. "How?"

They each exchanged sure looks. "By trial. All it would take is a month,"

So in a month, I could have everything back. Everything, right? To my surprise, the deadness did not life. This should satisfy me, and I knew that. If I had been found out a week ago, I would have taken this offer in a heartbeat. But what was stopping me now was something no amount of selfishness could make me deny.

My options were clear now: I could leave here with Steven, take the punishment along with him and never return. Never see almost all of my Pokémon ever again. Never hug my mother, or mooch around in my base or shop in Slateport or….

I glanced behind me. Steven was feet by the edge of the cave, staring back at me as if he could hear with intense definition my every thought. Just in case he could, I smiled, and screamed into my mind.

_Steven, we're leaving today._

His eyes widened into dark plates of shock. If he could move, he would have shaken his head no. But he wasn't going anywhere without me, we were in it together now.

At the top of my lungs, I roared into the clearing sapphire sky.

"TROPIA!"

A tremendous shadow that had been hiding silently beneath the treetops fell over the audience and deftly swooped in beside me. His formidable broadleaved body and long, graceful neck fell out as he ran toward me, a moving mount. I leaped on while Tropia was in mid-gallop.

Steven stood paralyzed, and I grabbed his hand to yank him on just as Tropia's leafy wings were beating to life.

Tropia thrust himself off of his massive hind legs, and the wind lashed wildly into our faces, driving us higher over the cave, away from Ever Grande. Away from Hoenn.

I heard a grief-filled voice scream up to us from atop the cave's stony roof.

It was Mom. "May, please! You don't have to do this for him! Come back!"

Her pleas bounced off of me like a steel wall.

"Sorry, Mom! Things are different now," And I knew with every ounce of me that it was true. I was in love now.

Steven moved to the edge of Tropia's back, to speak to every face in the crowd that was disappearing behind the sea.

"Goodbye! I wish you all Hell!"

Between laughs, we turned back to face the gold sun, shining blissfully down on the emerald leaves we sat on.

I leaned my head to rest on Steven's shoulder.

"Northbound, Tropia. To Kanto,"

……….

Ladies and Gentleman, it was midmorning, and my once naïve heart was content.

**THE END**


	9. Epilogue: Discovery

_4 Days Later, Steven Stone._

In the heat of the last few days, I'd managed to completely forget about everything I'd left in Hoenn. They'd probably already wrung May's Pokémon Storage dry, released every one. A current of anger swept over my body to think about it. I looked over my shoulder curiously, where she and her Mightyena were conversing actively with each other about green Pokeblocks.

May would say something like "They're better than yellow ones", or "Who needs to look tough anyway, Emma?", and Emma would cough doggedly into her face, ignoring the steam shooting from her ears.

I sighed. She seemed to be okay, contrary to all of my presumptions when we were in the middle of our escape from Ever Grande. The only Pokémon she had with her right now were Emma, her terrible actor Swampert and the massive Tropia, her jovial Aggron called Ridge, Kyogre, Manectric- and then Ninetails.

Me, I was just enjoying not having to be the decorous Steven Stone all the time. On the Sevii Islands I was just Steven, the homeless passerby that nobody knew. The whole idea of it was loathsome at first, but at least I could completely remake my image here.

So this was what it meant to be 23…?

Didn't seem so- at least not while I was hacking logs in half so we wouldn't freeze to death in these northern conditions.

While May and Emma indulged in debate, I helped Aggron saw another log in half. The sheer weight of breaking the trunks and throwing them aside kept interrupting my thinking. Those damned things better burn well, my conscience growled, and I rigidly dropped another log into his pile.

Just as I turned away to take another look at May and Emma's discussion, Aggron made an impatient grunt.

Standing up, I asked Metagross for a translation with a weary look.

His answer rang metallically through the clearing, bouncing off the trees and making May jump from her debate spot in the corner of the earthy meadow.

"He said, 'can you saw a little faster? I have a raw battle with Ridge in 10 minutes,'" Once he'd finished his translation, Metagross pointed a claw at my boiling expression.

"Why don't you get over here and try this!"

He shut up once he heard the well-composed scroll of swears that went in a timely manner through my mind. It made it easier (if not still bitter) to resume working once I saw him recede into the overhanging shadows of the island.

Ah, the beauty of profanity.

Looking into the faltering eggshell sunlight that draped over the sky, it dawned on me that I could use some time away from our campsite, just for some much needed quiet.

I turned in her direction. "May?"

"Hm?" She asked, taking the advantage to cram the green pokeblock down Emma's throat.

"I'm going out for a little while. Can you take over the logging for me?"

She strode over to stand between me and Aggron. "Of course- but he sort of scares me,"

Aggron's head snapped at us, suddenly deterred from his work. There was unmistakable unhappiness in his eyes, like she'd offended him.

May, after some oblivious glances at me, realized her mistake. "Oops, sorry. I mean, I know I have Ridge and all, but you're just so…" The words came with increasing awkwardness as Aggron's expression went from unhappy to blatantly pissed. "-menacing-ish…?"

That didn't really help. I couldn't help but laugh at her. She was pretty cute, even when she had no idea.

"Shut it, Taylor Hicks,"

…

I did, contenting myself to walk away into the tropical plantlife lining Fortune Island, but I couldn't help but wonder…

Who the hell _was_ that guy?

…

The plantlife here was much softer and paler than the rough ferns on May's Island. That's what I called it now, May's Island. The island she'd never see again because I was the biggest idiot imaginable.

I faintly picked up the woody scent drifting around the pale trunks, and the smell of rare berries slipping in and out behind it. Berries… I'd tell her about this place later.

My eyes stayed locked in on the leaf littered ground, watching for water and loose rocks, as the path steepened. Suddenly, it began to go even harder, the slope almost straight up and down now. I held on tightly to the moss covered rocks that jutted from the wall. They became increasingly smaller and harder to grip, but years in caves had given me ease in climbing- I could proudly say I was multiple times better than anybody I knew. If anyone else was climbing in my place, they would have fallen to the treacherous lining of stones below the rocky wall by now.

I reached the bottom in a few minutes, touching down carefully into the rocks on my feet.

The air pressure was heavier now, sinking from the wall where I'd travelled down. A new scent replaced the airy smells drifting from the forest- it was much more powerful, like burning wood.

My glance shifted between rows of thinning forest and the sky- sure enough, there were gray plumes of smoke rising into the clouds and beyond. A fresh fire. May and I weren't alone in the woods.

Checking the terrain in front of me for possible twigs that would snap and give me away, I inched toward the final edge of woods to peer into the clearing where peach sunlight flooded between the trunks.

In the center of the tiny, ovular plain was a circle of head-sized stones, gray and weathered, with a mound of dirt in the center. Inside it raged a dark red flame that rose for who knows how many feet into the sky, emitting the thick waves of smoke and the smell of timber into the swaying drapes of treetops. Along the circumference were three brown tents, shaped like teepees and fashioned with a thick wooden stake pointing up through the top, skyward. The openings were sliced into the shapes of triangles, revealing a few beaten looking sleeping bags. Fascinated, I stepped closer toward the light flooding through the trees.

A figure shifted in the corner of the campsite, freezing the blood in my veins.

I could tell that whoever it was hadn't seen me, as the person walked over to the fire and threw some logs into it, back to me.

Suddenly, I heard a faint cracking from beneath my weight, splitting the dead silence that lay between me and the stranger. His head whipped around in the direction of the noise. I waited for agonizing seconds until he looked away from the tree I hid behind, threw another log into the fire, and walked away from the crackling hiss that raged from the embers to disappear in the woods on the other side of his camp.

Exhaling a lungful of air, I turned away from the stranger's camp and stretched out my fingers to prepare for the climb. I extended my hands to grasp the wall.

That's when I heard a scream, starting at a shriek and then becoming a desperate roar. Between it, small chunks of rock began to slide from the wall and crash noisily into the stony forest floor below.

I staggered away from the rocks, staring headlong into the sky. "Wha…!"

It was too late. The next thing I knew I was dragged to the ground by my back with a shattering thud, tumbling in a heap with the speeding projectile to the edge of the forest and rolling into the clearing.

I heard her panicked voice before I saw her. "Steven! Oh my goodness, are you all right? I'm such a bat brain!"

I shook my head in blurry disbelief. "May?"

"Stupid, stupid, stupid…" She rambled, clambering off of my body and resting me against a tree.

Suddenly the scenery had become ten times more vivid, in the strangest way. I'd been hit by her dropping body from high above me, but I couldn't deny the tingling happiness that ran into my veins and pulled a smile out of me upon seeing her.

"You're not stupid. Just clumsy- now what exactly happened?"

"I was following you," She admitted quickly, hastily ignoring my disapproving frown. "-and I went further into the woods, and it got steep! It was like sliding down a lane made of butter!"

She went on calling herself stupid for the next 5 minutes until I realized we had to find a way to get her back up the wall. And, with sudden urgency I realized, as quickly as possible. That stranger couldn't be far unless he climbed out of the basin for some reason. He could be in the woods nearby right now.

"We really should go…"

She interrupted me. "What's the rush for? It's just beginning to get nice out here,"

That was true. In my still hazy stupor I realized that the air had become clearer, fresher. Copper had begun to sweep into the sky in place of the light blue that marked afternoon, purple hues pulling from around the treetops and dying their pale green leaves dark and crisp, a more raw tone. The sun hung low and lazy in the lilac horizon, and the earthy scent of the upper woods filled my mind.

I sighed out loud, gripped to the ground where I could stare into the fading clouds. May leaned back against the tree beside me and did the same. I told her about the stranger that I'd seen in the very campsite we sat in, then the berry-filled area I'd found just above the rock wall.

"Sounds like you had quite the mini-adventure," She laughed, messing up my hair.

"Mhm," I muttered, returning to sky gazing.

For a few minutes we just sat there, letting the drowsiness take over the same way the lavender overtook the pink clouds and went violet with patches of dark blue in it, promising nightfall soon.

"This hasn't been so bad,"

I pretended to be confused, but I knew exactly what she meant. "What hasn't been bad?"

"Leaving Hoenn. Oh!"

"What's wrong?" I asked, immediately tearing my gaze from the sky.

"I just remembered. On my way here I found a newspaper. People are looking for us. Check this out,"

From her pocket she pulled a crumpled piece of paper, soiled by moist dirt and creased from being folded. She opened it up on her lap to display the article's blaring title.

They were looking.

"The 'Champions' of Hoenn Become Wanted Runaways," I read out loud, narrowing my eyes at the page as May explained.

"See? They needed a scoop so they showed up at the Mossdeep Space Center to interview some old guy who wanted to be an astronaut. They were kicked out- no soliciting- and lost their tickets for the ferry. Then, being the lousy bastards that they are, came across your window the night we were talking, heard how I'd confessed my cheating in our battle, and caught you "raping" me." She hissed, unclenching the paper from her palm to point at a hidden paragraph on the next page. Etched into the paper were she had let go were four little holes, where her nails had sliced in.

"There's more…?"

"Yes," she said. "-Ty took a tape of the whole thing. Then they planned there big discovery party. They faked a League challenge to get me to show up. I don't know how I didn't see it- Gabriella Tyler. Ugh!"

It instantly made me wilt to think about these people again. I wondered for some reference on my father. I knew it was the last I'd probably ever hear of him. Tabloids.

"Well, it worked." May continued with a grim smile. "They got the Officials, showed them the tape."

Suddenly the hatred began to rise in. When I'd been outside of Victory Road, watching them go into the cave. They'd gathered a crowd of people that had been suspecting us to begin with, and then just threw us out. I could've prevented this. Just the thought of that made my whole body quiver with hot blooded fury, the branch of the tree that I held shook in my hands.

May put a sympathetic hand on my shoulder. I could tell her gesture was uneasy, and her tone was muted and low, hateful yet sorrowed. "All for a week's pay," was all she said.

I wanted to hunt them down and kill them for this, at least some satisfaction, some triumph. But more trouble with the law was the least we needed. Maybe she had a chance of regaining her reputation. Me? I was a hated rapist forever.

I looked up at the sky. It was pure, deep sapphire now, with milky wisps of night cloud.

"May?"

"Hm?"

"Why did you come with me? Why did you throw away the chance you had to get your license back?"

"You act as if it's completely unobvious," She laughed into the night sky, struggling to hold on to her lighthearted approach.

It puzzled me. "It is, in a way. You could have gotten everything back!"

"Not everything! Hardly anything at all, if you were out here alone, wanted in Hell by everyone who sees this damned thing!" She threw the newspaper aside, suddenly livid. "I could never, ever sit on my ass back at home with everyone loving me again while they hated you. We're in it together. I love you,"

This time I could believe her. There wasn't any part of that I could doubt. We were both here, both punished but not punished at all. I felt a strange wave of rebelliousness that was even more unfamiliar than this place.

"I guess I have to thank you, then. I don't know what I'd do here, alone,"

"You've done fine alone for such a long time," She mused, lying back in the grass and gazing into the night sky.

"That was before the hated rapist thing."

"Ha! I like it better this way. It's more… wild. We're on the run, in a way."

"Does that mean we should be going anywhere or slitting any throats?" I asked with a laugh.

She gave me a mischievous glance, and then looked away.

"Maybeee…."

We both laughed for some time after that, musing at how everything great always happened at night. Finally, we decided it was no use trying to climb in the dead of night without anything to see our way back. The fire was long dead, only wisps of grey smoke still remained to climb into the sky. Everyone with sense was asleep.

Finally, once I felt sleep start to fall over my mind, I spoke. "Even though we're the most hated people regionally right now, I don't think this could be more perfect,"

She smiled again, the moonlight glinting in her dark eyes. "I beg to differ,"

The darkness fell between her and me, I could feel the warmth of her body, and then her lips on mine. I wrapped my arms around her back, welcoming the blissful electricity that came with it.

I sighed, the coolness drowning my mind along with all the memories of our conversation. Any thoughts of hate, questioning, sadness, everything… they were all lost somewhere in the winding, endless milky way that draped over the sky.

I couldn't agree with her more. No amount of hate could change this moment. One agreeing glance between May and I confirmed that. Nothing in the world could ever be as perfect as the steel midnight over our heads right now.

…

**Author's Note: **Thanks for following this story everyone. I loved writing it. I hope that you'll all take the chance to read the continuation of Steel Water- Fire and the Islands. Welcome to a new region, new characters, and a special appearance from Sinnoh's Champion, Cynthia. I hope you guys enjoy it- up next Friday, June 11!

"It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust."  
-Samuel Johnson


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